Slow Match (Patreon)

Patron reward for Richard Westberry. Now Richard is a huge fan of blackpowder so I've drawn his European badger OC as a musketeer from the time of the English Civil War. 

    Compared to modern firearms the matchlock musket that the badger is holding is a rather primitive affair. However the manual of arms required to keep it operating in the field was complex. The weapon is a muzzleloader meaning that powder had to be poured down the barrel. Then a projectile, and sometimes a bit wadding, was forced down the barrel via a ramrod. A small pan on the lock held a bit of priming powder that was ignited. A tiny hole in the barrel allowed the flame in the pan to ignite the powder in the barrel and fire the weapon. 

    To ignite the powder in the pan a long cord of slow match was used. In Europe this was often a linen cord that was soaked in saltpeter. The cord was often lit on both ends. So if the cord was extinguished on one end it could re-lit with the other end. Needless say having hundreds, if not thousands, of men carrying smoldering matches in the presence of gunpowder could be recipe for accidents, mishaps, and general mayhem. 

     Match cord had to be constantly supplied or made for forces in the field. The burning matches could give away position of your forces at night. Even the smell of hundreds of slow matches apparently gave away approaching forces on occasion. And a decent rain could turn all of your musketeers into men with poorly designed clubs.

     A quote supposedly from the later Napoleonic era sums up this problem quite nicely since even into the age of flintlocks rain could thwart your efforts to fire your weapon. 

      All skill is in vain when an angel pisses in your touch hole. 

     The flasks/containers hanging from the musketeer's bandoleer are wooden cartridges that contained a pre-measured amount gunpowder and a musket ball. 12 preloaded cartridges was a common number to be carried. These cartridges were sometimes referred as the 12 apostles. These wooden cartridges often clattered and banged against each other while the troops were moving.  There use began to fall out of favor during the time of the English Civil War. Being replaced by the paper cartridge that in various forms would remaining in service until the 1860s. 

     The long thin pole with the U-shaped end piece is a musket rest. A musketeer's firearm could weigh 12+ pounds and had a barrel up to 48" in length. The rest allowed the musketeer stabilize the weapon during firing and certain steps of the reloading process.  Musket calibers could vary wildly but a general rule of thumb for this time period was one pound of lead would make 10 tightly fitting balls for a musket with looser fitting12 balls being able to be rolled down the bore.  As time went on these weapons became lighter and no longer required the rest. 

     So musketeer in battle would have to juggle reloading his weapon under fire while holding is weapon, the rest for the weapon. Trying to keep his match light, but at the same time not accidentally setting off his powder with it. All the while he'll be surrounded by the roar of gunfire from his fellow musketeers, and standing in an ever growing clouds of smoke created by his weapon. Trying to hear his commander's orders to advance, present, fire, and then withdraw to allow the next rank to advance and fire their weapons. All the while the enemy is pouring their own volleys of musket fire into his ranks creating horrendous injuries and dead bodies to step around.

      The English Civil War period came at the end of the matchlock era.  By the end of it the matchlock musket with their smoldering cords were beginning to be replaced by what were confusingly referred to as firelocks. Today we'd call these type of weapons as having a snaphaunce or flintlock mechanisms. Wheellock firearms already existed but they were too expensive, fragile, and complicated for mass use.